Report

Over the last three decades, the Supreme Court has curtailed meaningful limits on political campaign spending and contributions. The alarming, but predictable, result is the rise of a small group of wealthy elites who make large political contributions with the goal of influencing election outcomes...

This report was produced in collaboration with Brian Schaffner, Professor of Political Science at University of Massachusetts Amherst and Jesse Rhodes, Associate Professor of Political Science at University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Introduction
Although Miami-Dade County is majority people of...

In 2013, total national healthcare spending reached a whopping $2.9 trillion dollars, slightly more than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of France.1 That amounts to $9,255 for every person in America, or 17.4 percent of total U.S. GDP.2 While the median income has...

Key Findings
This report quantifies the cost of climate change to millennials and their children, compared to a world without climate change. The climate change costs are compared to other significant economic burdens millennials will face over the course of their lifetime, including student debt,...

“We have to make college affordable for every American,
because no hardworking student should be stuck in the red.”
President Barack Obama, 2016
“One of the central problems of our outdated higher
education system is that it has become increasingly
unaffordable for those who stand to benefit...

This report was produced in collaboration with Brian Schaffner, Professor of Political Science at University of Massachusetts Amherst and Jesse Rhodes, Associate Professor of Political Science at University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Introduction
Policymakers should be responsive to...

As the United States rapidly becomes both a more diverse and unequal nation, policymakers face the urgent challenge of confronting growing wealth gaps by race and ethnicity. To create a more equitable and secure future, we must shift away from public policies that fuel and exacerbate racial...

Chicago’s 2015 mayoral race was one of the most expensive in the nation’s history, with big donors playing an outsized role in financing both candidates’ campaigns. In fact, over 90 percent of the money raised by the two major candidates came from donors giving more than $1,000, and more than...

The freedom to vote is America’s most important political right outside of the original Bill of Rights, and it is also the most hard-won right. In the early years of our republic, only white landowners could vote. Slowly, the franchise was expanded in the states to incorporate white male laborers,...

On the verge of the most expensive election in U.S. history—and six years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United decision—Americans are demanding a government that is truly by the people, where every voice is heard and every vote counts.
According to a June 2015 poll by...